#236 Of The Nightmares Of Parenting: Dropping Our Kids On Their Heads

I dropped the baby today for the first time ever and he hit his head. I cried for longer than he did. I didn’t actually drop him, I sat him down on the floor and he fell backwards. Everything went in slow motion until I finally heard the gawd awful bump of his head hitting the floor. His little face squished up into his silent cry face squint and turned all red as it took about a second to get a huge scream out. It took about the same time for my tears to start to pour.

I have never felt that kind of pain in my heart, and I know I was totally overreacting. John, my DH was really serious when he teased and said “Thank God! It was you that dropped him first and not me!” That was pretty funny, I can laugh about it all now.

I thought we were doing pretty good too. 7 months without any bumps. At the same time it wasn’t a negative experience, it was bound to happen eventually. Better to learn early and keep growing from there. Babies will cry from bumps, they will get hurt. We all just have to keep moving forward and grow together.

There should be support groups for this. I know there are a gabillion online forums, but it’s not the same thing. While they help after the fact, there is nothing there right at the moment your kid goes tumbling down onto the floor like Humpty f*ckin’ Dumpty. Nothing is there to actually catch your friggin’ kid, including yourself.

I did find a really helpful tip online from a doctor. He says to just not let your baby fall asleep for 30 minutes after a fall or bump. Babies are okay 99% of the time stuff like this happens, but to help ease a new moms’ nerves, 30 minutes will give you enough time to feel for any bumps, find any bruises, and God forbid, see if there is anything else more serious.

That makes good sense. I mean, our kids are gonna get hurt no matter what we do. I could try to keep mine in a big plastic bubble for the rest of his life, but I just love hugging him and kissing his chubby cheeks too damn much! (Please NOTE that no babies were harmed or seriously injured in the writing of this post ;-D)